Family and travels, May 4-May 18

The weekend of May 4 we held a family Bar-B-Que at  the Reims house (Joel's brother and sister in-law where we are staying), to celebrate Joel's son  Bradley's upcoming birthday.  Bradley and his girlfriend Iris,  picked up Jennie, Bradley's sister, so it was a true family affair.  Bradley and Jennie live in Portland about a two hour drive from Leaburg.  The weekend turned out to be perfect weather as the sun made a rare appearance.

 Jennie, Joel (he got dressed up for the occasion) Bradley, and Iris

The following Monday I headed out to California to spend a few days in Portola with son Jeremy with plans to head over to Pacific Grove on the coast to spend Mother's day with my mom.  Monday turned out to be a gorgeous day for traveling and I had to stop and admire this view of the Diamond Peak on highway 97 as I traveled south.

I spent a day or two at Jeremy's, enjoying the mountains and explored a part of the Gold Lakes area in the Plumas National Forest and came upon this little alpine lake.

Just down the road was Frazier Falls.  I had visited Frazier Falls in January when it was all frozen over, and before there was any snow or snow melt.  The falls were flowing to capacity.  The Falls are 176 feet high and the cascade is over 275 feet.

Next I headed over to Pacific Grove.  This is the perfect time of year to visit the Monterey Peninsula.  The magic carpet along Ocean Avenue and Sunset Drive in Pacific Grove  is spectacular this time of year.  The real name is Mesembryanthemum.  It is a type of succulent that blooms profusely in the spring.

I had a wonderful visit with my almost 92 year old mother.  She recently gave up driving so I made myself useful and ran errands with her and one day went for  a nice drive up the Carmel Valley through Cachaugua .  The California hills were still green and yellow, which won't last too much longer.  I was able to get a few long bicycle rides in along the Seventeen Mile Drive in Pebble Beach and some nice morning walks.  If you have never been to Pebble Beach, the gate fee is waived if you walk or bicycle in.  It's worth it!

I returned to Reno and met up with my hiking friend Sandi and we tackled the hunter creek trail out of Reno.  It is a challenging trail with a continuous elevation gain for about three miles which ends at the Hunter Creek water falls.  I've posted pictures of hunter creek previously so I won't post any this time.

I received a call from my property manager that there are shingles off the  roof  of my rental house from the recent wind storms, so I'm going to remain in Portola for a few more days until I can meet with my property manager in Reno  and determine the extend of the damage.  The weather has been perfect... 70's during the day with sun and cool temperatures at night.  Can't be that. I see a few hikes and bicycle rides before returning to Oregon, so stay tuned.